Densho Digital Archive - Mitsue Nishio Interview (denshovh-nmitsue-01-0012)

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KL: So what block did you go to when you arrived?

MN: Block 7. But we didn't stay there too long because from, I think 1 to 7 or 8, they used it for immunization building, so we had to, after about one month staying in Block 7, we moved to Block 22. Then we stayed there 'til...

KL: Who else was in Block 7 with you?

MN: Pardon me?

KL: What other people were in Block 7 with you?

MN: Lots of people. Lots of people. But at the beginning, in one room, maybe a little bigger than this one, my family, three of us, and my father-in-law and mother-in-law, and my husband's sister and her husband and her baby, so eight people living in one room.

KL: How old was, her baby was Victor, right?

MN: Victor.

KL: How old was Victor?

MN: He was about three. He was three years older than my daughter, cousins, so he was a little over three. Matter of fact -- he lives in North Carolina now -- he called me yesterday afternoon, talked one hour.

KL: Not quite as long as us, huh? [Laughs]

MN: Anyway, eight of us in one room, divided by army blanket, you know the kind of brownish, greenish blanket? Dividing each family.

KL: What was it like?

MN: Just no privacy. No privacy. But later on, they start finishing the barracks, so each family got one room. So I don't know how many months we were in one room together, eight of us.

KL: That would be difficult, I would think.

MN: And the bathroom was made of, there was barracks all over and one building was the bathroom, one is a laundry room. We used to go to, even in nighttime, we used to go to, in a storm or snowing or raining, we used to go to another building for the bathroom and shower.

KL: Did you always do that, however the weather?

MN: Always. Until we came out three and a half years later.

KL: How was it having the three-year-old and the baby as part of the eight of you in Block 7? How did that work?

MN: I guess it's okay. I guess no use complaining, so we just take it as it is. We didn't have much, we didn't have trouble.

KL: Were there Caucasians in Block 7 with you?

MN: Oh, no. No Caucasians at all. All Japanese. But one boy -- he didn't look like Caucasian, he was a little bit on the Spanish side, but he said he was the only one, he didn't want to separate from friends in Boyle Heights area, so he went to camp and he stayed there for three and a half years.

KL: Did you know him?

MN: I know who he is, but he passed away a few years back. Article was in the Japanese newspaper when he passed away, because when war started he said, "I'm not a Japanese, but I don't want to be separated from my friends." So he went.

KL: What did you think of that?

MN: [Laughs] Everybody liked him. He's a, he was a nice guy, young boy.

KL: This is --

MN: He was about fifteen, sixteen, I guess.

KL: This is Ralph Lazo?

MN: Pardon me?

KL: Is it Ralph Lazo that you're talking about? Do you know his name, the boy's name?

MN: I used to, but I forgot.

KL: There was a high school student named Ralph Lazo. That, I think, is his name.

MN: That's him, I guess.

KL: He died in the 1980s and he, he was Mexican and Irish and American.

MN: Right, I think that's him. I guess Ralph.

KL: So you heard about him in Manzanar?

MN: Yes.

KL: Who else do you remember from Block 7, or from Manzanar?

MN: From Block 7 we moved to Block 22. Well, a lot of people died, since we came out of camp. Not too many people -- like my nephew in North Carolina, he called yesterday, he was a little boy, only three years old, so he doesn't remember much. He said when the war ended he came out, he was six, six or seven years old, so he remembered a little bit, but not so much. He talked about it yesterday.

KL: He did?

MN: Uh-huh.

KL: Does he ask you questions?

MN: No, not too much. He had the parents, so...